Obama agenda: Budget dance

The AP on the president’s budget: “President Barack Obama is sending Congress a $3.77 trillion spending blueprint that seeks to achieve an elusive ‘‘grand bargain’’ to tame runaway deficits by raising taxes further on the wealthy and trimming popular benefit programs such as Social Security. The president’s proposal being unveiled Wednesday includes an additional $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, bringing total deficit savings to $4.3 trillion, based on the administration’s calculations. It projects that the deficit for the 2014 budget year, which begins Oct. 1, would fall to $744 billion. That would be the lowest gap between spending and revenue since 2008.”

Politico: “On Wednesday, Senate Republicans will break bread with President Barack Obama at the White House. On Tuesday, Bernie Sanders, the most liberal member of the Senate Democratic caucus, was standing outside the gates rebuking Obama for selling out seniors. That jarring juxtaposition captures the upside-down political dynamic of Obama’s new budget proposal.”

Similarly, USA Today writes, “President Obama will unveil his budget later today, offering a fiscal plan that even before it's officially released is eliciting groans from his conservative opponents as well as his backers on the left.”

Even some Republican health experts say don’t count on ObamaCare to fail, National Journal reports.

The Washington Post: “A clear majority of Americans have an unfavorable view of the federal income tax system, according to new Washington Post-ABC News polling. But, in a somewhat remarkable finding, a majority of Democrats view the tax system in a positive light while Republicans and Independents carry the exact opposite view.”